BREAKING: VATICAN CITY/AP -- "Pope Benedict XVI says he will make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in May."

-- BAGHDAD/Reuters: "The United States will reduce the number of troops in Iraq by around 12,000 in the next six months ... 'Two brigade combat teams who were scheduled to redeploy in the next six months, along with enabling forces such as logistics, engineers and intelligence, will not be replaced,' the U.S. military said in a statement.'"

Good Sunday morning. The N.Y. Post’s Keith J. Kelly says President Obama was on last year’s best-selling covers of TIME, Newsweek and Rolling Stone, reflecting the sort of sales that usually only come after a tragedy like the death of Princess Di. At PEOPLE, the president finished second to Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt with their newborn twins. “People’s 9/11 issue is still its all-time best seller with more than 4 million copies sold on newsstands.”

The Forbes best-seller of 2008 was a Merrill Lynch cover story (“No Thain, No Gain”) in which the writer decreed: “Merrill is in damn good shape.”

RUSH is Newsweek’s new cover boy, with a strip of black tape over his mouth – “Enough! A Conservative’s Case Against Limbaugh,” By David Frum, editor of NewMajority.com: “Rush knows what he is doing. The worse conservatives do, the more important Rush becomes as leader of the ardent remnant. The better conservatives succeed, the more we become a broad national governing coalition, the more Rush will be sidelined.”

Jon Meacham writes in “The Editor’s Desk”: “In the West Wing, … David Axelrod was musing about the complexities of the politics during the recession. ‘One way of looking at American politics right now is through the frame of responsibility,’ he told me. ‘The vast majority of ordinary Americans are doing what they are supposed to do, and all the other institutions have not, especially in corporate America. And the government, under a Republican administration, failed to hold these institutions accountable. So the problem for Rush is that his position is now associated with irresponsibility.’ … We all know that politics tends to move in epochs. Nineteen thirty-two to 1980 was liberal; 1980 to 2008 has been a Republican epoch. I think it's too early to say what the coming years will be, but our candidacy was premised on the idea that this is a transformative moment—that the Republican project had run out of steam. There's an opportunity here.’”

OVERHEARD, during the President’s interview with The New York Times: “Hold on, Sheryl!”

THE MOST IMPORTANT PARAGRAPH IN PLAYBOOK – THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN: “Let’s today step out of the normal boundaries of analysis of our economic crisis and ask a radical question: What if the crisis of 2008 represents something much more fundamental than a deep recession? What if it’s telling us that the whole growth model we created over the last 50 years is simply unsustainable economically and ecologically and that 2008 was when we hit the wall — when Mother Nature and the market both said: ‘No more.’ … Often in the middle of something momentous, we can’t see its significance. But for me there is no doubt: 2008 will be the marker — the year when ‘The Great Disruption’ began.”

RELEASED AT 6 a.m. – nominees for three top jobs at Treasury -- Reuters: “Lawyer David S. Cohen, for the position of assistant Treasury secretary, terrorist financing. … Economist Alan Krueger for the job of assistant secretary, economic policy. … Financial specialist Kim Wallace, nominated for assistant secretary, legislative affairs. … All three of the nominees are serving as counselors to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. But there still is no deputy Treasury Secretary and two key undersecretariats -- for international policy and domestic finance -- have not yet been filled. … Lee Sachs, also currently a counselor to Geithner, is widely considered a top contender for under secretary for domestic finance.”

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A ONCE-IN-A-LIFETIME GATHERING – Nearly a century of the nation’s Democratic royalty will come together this evening in The Kennedy Center Concert Hall for “Some Enchanted Evening: A Musical Birthday Salute to Senator Edward M. Kennedy,” with Bill Cosby as emcee. When the Kennedy Center reopened after renovations in 1997, Senator Kennedy conducted the National Symphony Orchestra on opening night in this hall.

The Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra will be conducted by John Williams, and Lauren Bacall and Bernadette Peters are part of a long list of stars who’ll appear during the 75-minute program. Several aspects of the evening are being kept as a surprise for Senator Kennedy, so we’ll tell you about them tomorrow. But among the 2,300 guests will be Vice President Biden and Dr. Jill Biden, the House and Senate majority leadership, labor leaders, military brass, historians, Adam Clymer, former Democratic presidential campaign managers and strategists, several Republican senators, top White House staff, the Cabinet, TV anchors more. It’s not on the President’s public schedule, but don’t be surprised if you run into him. You could be in Vienna: The performance space, the largest in the Kennedy Center, resembles a European concert hall, with the formality of dark rosewood and the 11 famous Hadelands crystal chandeliers.

Senator Kennedy, who turned 77 on Feb. 22, will receive the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award, represented by a symbol of hope -- a sterling-silver lantern, designed by Edwin Schlossberg and crafted (sorry, Al Siegal) by Tiffany & Co. The award, created in 1989 to honor President Kennedy’s commitment and contribution to public service, is normally presented in May in celebration of President Kennedy’s birthday.

Caroline Kennedy, president of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, will tell the dignitaries: “Every year, Senator Edward M. Kennedy is nominated for his statesmanship and leadership on the most pressing issues facing our nation. … Knowing how much Uncle Teddy enjoys celebrating his birthday, the members of the Profile in Courage Award Committee determined that this would be an appropriate time to present this award for political courage to the American who has never stopped asking what he can do for his country.”

Albert R. Hunt, chairman of the Profile in Courage Award Committee and executive editor for Washington at Bloomberg News, will make the formal presentation from the stage, and will read the citation: “In 1956, John F. Kennedy wrote [“Profiles in Courage”], about the grace and courage of eight United States Senators who risked their careers to stand up for American ideals. … The political valor of Edward Moore Kennedy exceeds what can be told in a single volume. … He carries the nation on his shoulders through the most important struggles of our time – for justice, for equality, for opportunity, for freedom.”

BIRTHDAYS: Stephen Saunders is 30. … Someone close to Playbook (or one of their kids) is tomorrow. Please remind us -- it’s driving us crazy. We knew we couldn’t forget because it’s our Grandmother’s birthday, but then we forgot who.

FILED FROM THE FAMOUS REFUELING STOP IN SHANNON, Ireland -- Politico’s David S. Cloud, “Clinton reprises star in third act”: “The way to think about what kind of secretary of state Hillary Clinton will be is to remember what she did after coming to the Senate eight years ago. … [S]he surprised [colleagues] by plunging into the details of the job and gradually earned a reputation as one of the Senate's most substantive members. She displayed the same style in her weeklong trip to the Middle East and Europe last week, and it was a sharp contrast to her approach on her maiden trip as secretary to Asia in February, where she made headlines with frank and sometimes jarring comments playing down the importance of human rights in the U.S.-China relationship and speculating about a possible succession struggle in North Korea. Clinton on her second trip was substantive and unspectacular—dispatching envoys to Damascus, carefully navigating the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, announcing President Barack Obama's visit to Turkey and meeting with her counterpart from Moscow. It was important but safe diplomacy, most of which will only pay off, if it ever does, over the next few months and years, much the way Clinton's early work in the Senate paid off for her there. …

“Hillary is a star, almost as much as Obama himself, and her celebrity gives her a tool she seems intent on exploiting, both within the administration and overseas. At almost every stop on her trip Clinton conducted some sort of public meeting or town-hall gathering intended to either highlight a policy priority of hers or to spread the message that she and the Obama administration are making far-reaching changes in U.S. foreign policy compared to the Bush years. … Public fascination with Clinton and the new administration inevitably will fade, which is probably why she is moving early to establish her position as a substantive player within the administration.”

PRESIDENT UNLOADS ON BUSH IN FOLLOW-UP CALL TO THE NEW YORK TIMES – From NYTimes.com – “President Obama spoke in a 35-minute interview aboard Air Force One on Friday afternoon [with Helene Cooper, Sheryl Gay Stolberg, Jeff Zeleny and Peter Baker] as he traveled from Columbus, Ohio to Andrews Air Force Base. This is an edited transcript …

“Q. The first six weeks have given people a glimpse of your spending priorities. Are you a socialist as some people have suggested?

“A. You know, let’s take a look at the budget – the answer would be no.

“Q. Is there anything wrong with saying yes?

“A. Let’s just take a look at what we’ve done. … [I]f you look at our budget, what you have is a very disciplined, fiscally responsible budget, along with an effort to deal with some very serious problems that have been put off for a very long time. And that I think is exactly what I proposed during the campaign. We are following through on every commitment that we’ve made, and that’s what I think is ultimately going to get our economy back on track.

“Q. So to people who suggested that you are more liberal than you suggested on the campaign, you say, what?

“A. I think it would be hard to argue, Jeff. We have delivered on every promise that we’ve made so far. We said that we would end the war in Iraq and we’ve put forward a responsible plan.

“Q. In terms of spending.

“A. Oh, in terms of spending. Well, if you look at spending, what we said during the campaign was, is that we were going to raise taxes on the top five percent. That’s what our budget does. We said that we’d give a tax cut to 95 percent of working Americans. That’s exactly what we have done. … What I’m refusing to do and what I’ve instructed my staff that we will not do is to try to kick the can down the road, to try to paper over problems, try to use gimmicks on budgets, try to pretend that health care is not an issue, to continue with a situation where we are exporting – importing – more and more oil from the middle east, continuing with a situation in which average working families are seeing their wages flat line. At some point, we’ve got to take on these problems.”

“Q. Is there one word name for your philosophy? If you’re not a socialist, are you a liberal? Are you progressive? One word?

“A. No, I’m not going to engage in that.” …

“At 2:30 p.m., President Obama called The New York Times, saying he wanted to clarify a point from the interview. Here is a transcript of that brief call:
“President Obama: Just one thing I was thinking about as I was getting on the copter. It was hard for me to believe that you were entirely serious about that socialist question. I did think it might be useful to point out that it wasn’t under me that we started buying a bunch of shares of banks. It wasn’t on my watch. And it wasn’t on my watch that we passed a massive new entitlement – the prescription drug plan without a source of funding. And so I think it’s important just to note when you start hearing folks through these words around that we’ve actually been operating in a way that has been entirely consistent with free-market principles and that some of the same folks who are throwing the word socialist around can’t say the same.

“Q. So who’s watch are we talking about here?

“A. Well, I just think it’s clear by the time we got here, there already had been an enormous infusion of taxpayer money into the financial system. And the thing I constantly try to emphasize to people if that coming in, the market was doing fine, nobody would be happier than me to stay out of it. I have more than enough to do without having to worry the financial system. The fact that we’ve had to take these extraordinary measures and intervene is not an indication of my ideological preference, but an indication of the degree to which lax regulation and extravagant risk taking has precipitated a crisis. I think that covers it.” http://tr.im/h8p6

WATCH WHAT YOU SAY TO MAUREEN IN A CAB: “Journalists are never supposed to start a piece with a scene in a taxi because it signals either laziness about gathering facts or a tendency to embroider facts. Nonetheless, I’m going to. David Brooks and I were sharing a cab to the British Embassy the other day to meet with Gordon Brown. … Let’s face it: The only bracing symbol of American strength right now is the image of Michelle Obama’s sculpted biceps. … In the taxi, when I asked David Brooks about her amazing arms, he indicated it was time for her to cover up. ‘She’s made her point,’ he said. ‘Now she should put away Thunder and Lightning.’ … I also have no doubt she can talk cap-and-trade with ease and panache.”

A GOOD TV STORY – POLITICO’s Kenneth P. Vogel, “No mortgage pinch for Obama, team”: “As mortgage foreclosure rates hit record highs, one small group of homeowners remains relatively immune to the pressures confronting millions of other Americans: those at the highest levels of the Obama administration. At least seven top officials—as well as the president himself—have reaped the benefits of mortgage deals ranging from discounted rates to reduced and subsidized mortgages to free housing, largely due to their stature or as perks of previous employment. To be sure, neither Obama nor any of his appointees have been found to have acted improperly in securing mortgages or housing … But in most cases the deals or housing arrangements were of a kind that are unavailable to most Americans, a happenstance that reveals more about how the political class lives than about the composition of the Obama team.” http://tr.im/h8rk

THE NARRATIVE – L.A. Times A1, “Obama’s party may not toe line,” By Peter Nicholas: “Obama's party is peppered with legislators from conservative districts who are wary of a budget proposal that includes tax increases and deficit spending, even if tax cuts are also part of the plan. … Republican operatives hope to encourage defections from Obama's Democratic coalition, zeroing in on potentially vulnerable Democrats from more conservative districts. Last month, they aired radio ads targeting 30 Democrats who voted for Obama's stimulus plan.”

BIDEN ADVANCER – “Biden to trawl for Afghanistan ideas at NATO,” by AFP’s Laurent Lozano: “Vice President Joe Biden heads to Brussels on Monday for consultations with NATO allies as a moment of decision looms on a new US strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Biden, who holds a day of talks in Brussels Tuesday, will be on his second trip to Europe in a month, and officials said his high-profile journey was a sign of how seriously they took the war policy review. … ‘It's just an indication of the seriousness of the situation in Afghanistan, but I think it's also a recognition of the seriousness with which we take this,’ said a senior Obama administration official on condition of anonymity. ‘This is not just lip service, the idea of consultation, we mean it, and in return we want concrete ideas and concrete assistance,’ said the official. Biden will hold consultations with the North Atlantic Council, the political and decision-making body of the alliance's 26 member states, NATO secretary general Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and Belgian government officials.”

SPORTS BLINK -- Allen Wilson of The Buffalo News: “A relatively quiet offseason ended with a loud bang Saturday as the Bills signed dynamic but controversial free agent wide receiver Terrell Owens. The Bills did not release contract details, but an NFL source said Owens received a guaranteed one-year deal worth $6.5 million. … After Owens was released by the Dallas Cowboys last Thursday, the Bills moved swiftly. [Bills Chief Operating Officer Russ] Brandon and members of the front office flew to Miami and brought Owens and agent Drew Rosenhaus back to Buffalo, where an agreement was reached quickly. … Owens said he is looking forward to working with quarterback Trent Edwards and playing with Evans. He also is motivated to prove he is still an elite receiver at age 35. … ‘I just have to create my own following up here in North America,’ he said. ‘I’m leaving America’s Team to come to North America’s Team. Get ready.’”

DESSERT – WashPost Style & Arts front, “Prime-Time Location: In a New Political Season, the Capital's Character Is Getting a Lot More Credit,” By Marc Fisher: “No longer is the city simply a collection of marble icons to be glommed onto police procedurals and other basic formats of television drama. Street scenes still often clumsily reveal that the programs are made in Los Angeles. Fleeting shots of the Jefferson Memorial, the Capitol dome and random limestone buildings that look like they could appear on dollar bills are often the only actual views of the District, but shows such as ‘Bones,’ ‘Lie to Me,’ and, of course, ‘24’ are redefining Washington to the nation. …

"This season's ‘24’ was conceived before the rise of Obama, before the TV writers' strike, at a point when much of Hollywood assumed Hillary Clinton would be the next president. Even so, the new TV president, Allison Taylor (Cherry Jones), was written in a way that eerily predicted Obama's appeal: ‘She is a more idealistic, principled leader than her recent predecessors in the White House on “24,”’ [executive producer David] Nevins says. ‘She really dovetails with people's perceptions of Obama.’ … HBO has a cast for ‘The Washingtonienne,’ based on the autobiography of Jessica Cutler, the young Senate staffer who had a side business in sex and scandal. But the network has sent the series back to the shop for an overhaul ‘partly because there has been such a profound shift in Washington,’ according to Sarah Condon, executive producer of the show. HBO says it's premature to divulge details, but Condon says the show is being redeveloped ‘with the Obama administration in mind.’ … What has changed is the audience's appetite for things Washington, perhaps enough so that some of what could be as many as eight shows about the capital on the air next season might do some filming here. Directors still complain that the District is especially difficult to film in because of security rules and overlapping police and government jurisdictions that make it hard to know when you've gotten all the permissions you need.”

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If you look in old newspaper and magazine files, during the time of the last (the really BIG) depression, you'll see that the cartoons du jour represented the despised bankers and the filthy rich as extremely fat, totally rotund, jowly dunces in top hats and tails. And today, voila, except for the top hat and tails, we have our own living cartoon, Limbaugh. Rush is a caricature of the old cartoons, an obscenely obese body, crowned by an extremely fat head and face, eyes crunched to slits by puffed-up cheeks, dangling jowls and multiple chins, all the result of unfettered greed, obsessive/compulsive grasping, ravenous cramming of everything within reach into his cavernous maw, past his slithering, dripping lips....in short, the perfect symbol of our current run-a-muck, unbridled, capitalist debauch. And this physical perfection is enhanced by his words, his babbling boobism, his constant disregard of reality and history, and consistent adherence to the disproven republican creeds that 'MORE IS NOT ENOUGH', and 'GREED IS GOOD', and 'TRICKLE-DOWN WORKS'.....neglecting to mention that those creeds only 'work' to the benefit of the filthy rich. And befitting a cartoon, there is a certain sly humor when Limbaugh cries 'In a free society, people should be able to keep the monies they have worked hard to get', defending the obscene remunerations the filthy rich claim for themselves, and protesting any adjustment toward fairness of their taxes. Neglecting to mention that the 'work' they do, and the 'products' they create, are merely efforts and tools generated to fool, cheat, and screw every last dime possible from everyone stupid enough to believe them. Yes, whether they admit to choosing him or not, Limbaugh is the perfectly apropos leader of the republican party, and the living symbol of all their efforts for the past eight years. That he attracts numerous stooges is also apropos, in an undereducated society, the illiterate masses yearn for a mountain to call 'god'. Were he to disregard the shrewd advice of his costumer, and shed the black duds designed to make him appear less massively obese, and come out costumed in sparkling white, he'd generate a much larger crowd. Albeit they'd be toting skiis, and seeking lift tickets, in the hope of schussing down those gelatinous slopes above his teeny crotch. Which brings up another thing, since he can no longer physically reach his pee-pee or a**hole, have you ever wondered how (or 'if') Limbaugh urinates or defecates? Well,...... (but that's another story).

Rush is going to be very disappointed when he finds out that 'eternity' means 'ETERNITY', and that multitude of imps who've been jabbing his fat a** with pitchforks all those years to keep him dancing over those hot coals, won't grant him a day-pass to attend Ted Kennedy's funeral.

Rush is going to be very disappointed when he finds out that 'eternity' means 'ETERNITY', and that multitude of imps who've been jabbing his fat a** with pitchforks all those years to keep him dancing over those hot coals, won't grant him a day-pass to attend Ted Kennedy's funeral

GEE................MARY JO GETS AN INVITE? HER PARENTS? SHE WAS AN ONLY CHILD AND THEY WERE HARRASSED NO END TO LEAVE THE SENATOR 'ALONE' FOR 'THE GOOD OF THE NATION".

AD NAUSEM.

HE LEFT HER IN EIGHT FEET OF WATER. HE PASSED FOUR HOUSES WITH PHONES ON HIS WAY BACK...HE CLAIMED HE PASSED NONE...HE WAS IN A "DAZE". HE 'PROMISED' HIS COUSINS HE WOULD DIVE FOR HER. HE DID NOT.

PARAMEDICS...WHEN CALLED THE NEXT DAY...WHEN TED SHOWED UP..LAWYERED UP.....SAID SHE HAD PROBABLY HAD AN EIGHT HOUR AIR BUBBLE. SHE WAITED EIGHT HOURS FOR HIM TO COME BACK...AND GET HER OUT OF EIGHT FEET OF WATER.

TEDDY CLAIMS HE 'DOVE' FOR HOURS. IN EIGHT FEET OF WATER? THE CAR WAS UPSIDE DOWN. THE PORKER COULD HAVE PUSHED IT OVER AND PULLED HER OUT....THEN HE DRUG HIS PREGNANT WIFE, JOAN, TO THE HUMILITATING ALTHOUGH RIGGED INQUEST.......SHE MISCARRIED...AND BECAME A DRUNK FROM THAT DAY IT SEEMED. PRE-TEDDY....SHE WAS AS LOVELY AS A ROSE. SHE WAS THE BEAUTY OF THE FAMILY...NOT JACKIE. SHE IS A VICTIM TOO.

SORRY, POLITICO. TEDDY KENNEDY IS NO FRIEND TO WORKING PEOPLE IN THE USA. HE HAS DESTROYED US WITH CHEAP LABOR AND UNLIMITED IMMIGRATION. MAYBE YOU ELITES LOVE HIM. WE DON'T. WE WILL NOT DANCE AROUND..BECAUSE GOD IS WATCHING....BUT TRULY...A SHADOW WILL HAVE LEFT THIS NATION WHEN THE LORD CALLS HIM TO ANSWER...FOR MARY JO..............AS WE WILL ALL BE CALLED TO ANSWER FOR WHAT WE HAVE DONE.

WASHINGTON (March 6) — More than half of the nation's foreclosures last year took place in 35 counties, a sign that the financial crisis devastating the national economy may have begun with collapsing home loans in only a few corners of the country.

Those counties, spread over a dozen states, accounted for more than 1.5 million foreclosure actions last year, a USA TODAY analysis of figures compiled by the real estate listing firm RealtyTrac shows — more than were recorded in the entire United States just two years earlier. They were the epicenter of a wave of foreclosures that have left leading banks teetering and magnified the nation's economic problems.

"This crisis was triggered by foreclosures, and a lot of those were in a very small number of areas," says William Lucy, a University of Virginia professor who has studied the link between lenders and faltering home loans. Banks spread the risk and "it became like a car with no reverse gear. Once it starts to go over the cliff, it's gone."

In other parts of the country, the foreclosure wave was barely a ripple — at least until it started swamping major banks that had invested heavily in mortgages. Banking giant Wachovia Corp., for example, was hammered after California and Florida customers of one mortgage firm it bought began defaulting at high rates. The risks of such lending were spread so broadly among financial institutions that, when the loans went bad, it drove the national credit crisis, says Christopher Mayer, who studies real estate at Columbia Business School.

A few of the 35 counties leading the foreclosure boom are in already-distressed areas around Detroit and Cleveland. But most are clustered in places such as Southern California, Las Vegas, Phoenix, South Florida and Washington, where home values shot up dramatically in the first half of the decade, then began to crumble.

RealtyTrac's counts of foreclosure actions include default notices, auctions and repossessions by lenders, and can sometimes count the same property twice. As a result, they tend to be higher than estimates from other tracking firms. But they remain one of the best geographic measures of the nation's housing collapse.

The Obama administration on Wednesday detailed a $75 billion plan to keep more homeowners from slipping into foreclosure by helping them refinance loans or reduce their monthly payments. But that effort could face political challenges because most of the foreclosure problem has been so concentrated in a few areas, says Brookings Institution researcher Alan Mallach.

The worst-hit counties are home to about 20% of U.S. households, but accounted for just over 50% of the nation's foreclosure actions last year, driving most of the national increase. And even among those places, a few stand out: Eight counties in Arizona, California, Florida and Nevada were the source of about a quarter of the nation's foreclosures last year.

In more than 650 other counties — about a fifth of the nation — the number of foreclosure actions actually dropped since 2006.”(usatoday).............

USA is LOOKING TRUTHFUL...DOING REAL REPORTING.....coming out of this period of NOT REPORTING THE TRUTH about a REGIONAL MELTDOWN...WHICH BANKS WERE ALLOWED TO SPREAD ALL OVER THE USA...SO THEY COULD COVER THEIR BUTTS FOR LOANING TO ILLEGAL ALIENS..FLIPPERS...SPECULATORS...PEOPLE WITH NO INCOME......AND THE POLITICANS WHO PROTECT THE BANKS..AND THE NEWSPAPERS WHO FEEL THEIR READERS DO NOT DESERVE THE TRUTH. IT IS ‘ANTI-IMMIGRANT’. BETTER THE NATION SHOULD DIE..THAN BE ‘ANTI-IMMIGRANT’.

BIG CHIEF, when you right, you right. That was a craven, despicable act by Ted Kennedy to abandon Mary Jo Kopechne, and he may very well join Rush dancing among the imps and devils and white hot coals. But Rush is such a flaming maniac with no discernable redeeming qualities, I think he deserves to get there first, and be the opening act for the now-trying-to-be-honorable Senator Kennedy.